


Driving Down the Highway

by dracogotgame



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Humor, M/M, flangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-02
Packaged: 2019-04-30 07:12:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14491596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dracogotgame/pseuds/dracogotgame
Summary: Harry misses flying. But a drive down the highway has its charms too.





	Driving Down the Highway

****Harry remembered flying.

The joy of blazing a trail through the sky, racing unfettered past lazy, drifting clouds, the cold wind stinging his cheeks...oh, it was glorious. In a simpler time, he could do whatever he wanted and go wherever he pleased. All he had to do was mount his Firebolt and leave his worries behind.

That was a long time ago.

Now, the Firebolt was old and splintered, relegated to a dusty closet and only good for taking a short spin under a hastily cast Concealing Charm. And Harry...

Well, Harry was in a special kind of hell.

“Are we there yet?”

Harry clenched the steering wheel a lot harder than necessary and made a right turn. Okay, this was good. He could finally see the highway again. All he had to do was keep going until he hit the...

“Daddy!” Scorpius adopted a shrill, whiny drawl so reminiscent of Draco’s early years that Harry nearly stopped the car out of shock. His son pouted and poked at Harry’s shoulder. Are we _there_ yet?”

“Scorpius, don’t _do_ that!” Draco exclaimed at once. His grey eyes darted anxiously from the road to his son. “Don’t distract your father. This vehicle is unsafe enough, as it is.”

“It’s perfectly safe,” Harry repeated for the tenth time. And for the tenth time, he was ignored.

“We could have Apparated,” Draco muttered. “We could have traveled like normal people but _no_ , we just had to take this Muggle death trap to the beach, didn’t we? And now we’re lost but can we stop to ask for directions? No, of course not! Why on earth would we do that? That’s the sensible thing to do, so perish the thought! Just...”

Harry inhaled sharply and wisely refrained from pointing out that they had _both_ agreed to this. Side-Along Apparition was hard enough over long distances, and with four fidgety boys? No, thank you.

Of course, now he had four fidgety children in the back and an increasingly anxious spouse to handle over a six-hour drive.

Harry really missed his Firebolt.

“We’re not lost,” he informed Draco, yet again. “There’s the highway, see? We just have to get on it and we’ll be fine.”

“And do you know how to get there?”

Harry’s silence must have been answer enough because Draco set his jaw determinedly. “If you would just let me cast a simple Four-Point Spell...”

“We don’t _need_ a spell, we’re practically there!” Harry argued.

This was the wrong thing to say.

“We’re there?” Scorpius demanded, sitting up at once. “Al, wake up! We’re there!”

“No!” Harry blurted in alarm. “Let him sleep, son. We still have...”

“Wha-?” Al blinked and rubbed his eyes. “Are we there yet?”

“No!” Harry snapped.

“Now look what you did,” Draco grumbled.

Great, now he had two fidgety six-year-olds to deal with. If Scorpius was bad in the car, Al was ten times worse.

“But you woke me up!” Al complained. “And now I have to go.”

“We’re stopping,” Draco assured him.

“We’re not stopping,” Harry countered at once. “We’re almost on the highway.”

“Harry, he needs the bathroom,” Draco snapped. “This is hardly negotiable.”

“But...”

“For Merlin’s sake,” Teddy broke in, pulling his headphones off and scowling at them. “Loud, much? I can hear you over the Weird Sisters!”

“Hey, how long have you had those?” James— who had been mercifully quiet so far— demanded with a scowl. “Give me those, it’s my turn!”

“What? When did we decide to share the— **hey!** Give them back!”

“No! I wanna listen!”

The scuffling grew louder and louder until Harry couldn’t take it anymore. “Hey!” he snapped, turning his head to glare at his rowdy children. “Enough of that or I _will_ turn this car around, you hear me? I’ve had it up to here with your...”

“Harry!” Draco screeched. **“Watch the road!”**

There was a series of loud, shrill and not-very-manly shrieks as Harry swerved to avoid a stop sign.

The car skidded to a halt by the side of the road with a sharp whine. After that, there was silence. James and Teddy were wide-eyed and clinging to each other, Draco was breathing heavily with his fingers clenched around Harry’s bicep. Al seemed to have been frozen solid and Scorpius’s hands were digging into the seat.

“Is everyone okay?” Harry asked.

Draco’s shoulders sagged and he nodded tersely.

“Fine,” Teddy mumbled.

“Less fine,” James contributed shakily.

“Daddy?” Al’s voice was small and timid.

Harry turned to face him. “Yeah, son?”

“I don’t have to go anymore.”

Harry sighed and pulled over to the side of the road as a chorus of _ews_ and _oh, hell nos_ rang out from the back.

This was going to be a long trip.

 

* * *

 

After that disastrous attempt at a smooth, uneventful drive, Harry tuned out. The boys’ scuffling washed over him. So did Draco’s fretting and discreet attempts to cast Point Me Charms. All the heckling faded away in the background as the highway spread out before him. 

He just drove and drove and drove.

It was dark now. The stars were out and the moon was bright. Harry finally admitted defeat and cast a Four-Point Spell.

He checked the route and noted that they were barely half an hour away.

Despite everything, they were actually running ahead.

Harry pulled over to the side and stopped the car. He let his head rest against the seat for a second as he tried to get his bearings. He was so tired. He thought he’d been tired after the Battle of Hogwarts but this...

This was just exhausting.

It took him a moment or so to realize something was different.

It was quiet. Completely silent.

Harry sat up and looked around.

The boys were sprawled over each other in a messy heap. Teddy’s blue hair was just visible under James’s arm. Scorpius was curled up against James’s leg and Al was snuggled against him, mouth open as he snored. They were so still, so silent and peaceful. They were so sweet like this. The phrase _rowdy little hellions_ didn’t even cross his mind and wasn’t _that_ a first?

Harry smiled to himself. He watched them for a few moments before turning his attention to Draco. Draco was sprawled in his seat, still inexplicably elegant even in his contorted state. His lips were parted and his blond hair fanned out, glinting in the moonlight. He looked so beautiful, now that he wasn’t yammering on and on about directions and Harry’s driving and _you're going to_ _murder us all, Potter_.

Harry quirked a grin and pressed a kiss to those soft lips, just for the heck of it. Draco’s eyes fluttered open and he blinked dazedly at Harry.

“Are we there yet?”

Harry chuckled and bussed another kiss on his head. “Almost,” he promised. “Go back to sleep.”

“Mm,” Draco hummed, turning his head. His lips quirked in a small smile as he gazed out the window. “Full moon tonight.”

His hand wrapped around Harry’s, squeezing gently. For a moment, it was just the two of them again. Unfettered and free with their whole lives ahead of them.

“Do you miss it?” Harry asked.

“Miss what?”

“Just being...” Harry trailed off, suddenly unsure. How could he put it in words?

Fortunately, Draco seemed to understand. “Sometimes,” he admitted, somewhat guiltily.

Their eyes drifted to the boys again. Al turned over and his elbow dug into Scorpius’ ribs. “Stop it,” Scorpius mumbled plaintively. “Daddy, make ‘em stop...”

Draco smiled at the sight and Harry felt guilty all of a sudden. He reached out and ghosted a hand over Teddy’s leg.

“I love you to death, you know” he whispered. “All of you.”

“And we love you,” Draco replied, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “It’s okay to be a little overwhelmed, Harry. We all are, sometimes. The thing is, you have help. I’m right here.”

Their lips met in a soft brush. Harry sighed in contentment and deepened the kiss, carding a hand through Draco’s hair. ”I’m sorry,” he murmured, once they broke away. “Sometimes, I forget how lucky I am.”

Draco smiled and curled against his shoulder. “Just so you know,” he said, “I packed the Firebolt in the trunk. I know how antsy you get when you can’t go flying.”

Harry’s heart swelled. His arms wrapped around his husband and he pressed a soft kiss to his hair. “Thank you,” he whispered, “for everything.”

Draco hummed in contentment and closed his eyes. In seconds, he was asleep again. Harry pried him off carefully, arranged him back on the seat and started the car again.

The road stretched out in the dark and he drove straight ahead, right into another adventure. And for once, knowing that he wasn’t alone— that he would _never_ be alone again— just made it that much better. 


End file.
